An inspection system for pharmaceutical glass tubes

Abstract: Syringes, vials and carpules for pharmaceutical products are usually made of borosilicate glass. Such containers are made by glass converting companies starting from single glass tubes. These glass containers can suffer from inclusions, air bubbles, stones, scratches and others issues, that can cause subsequent problems like product contamination with glass particulate or cracks in the glass. In recent years, more than 100 million units of drugs packaged in vials or syringes have been withdrawn from the market. As a consequence pharmaceutical companies are demanding an increased delivery of high quality products to manufacturers of glass containers and therefore of glass tubes. An automatic, vision based, quality inspection system can be devoted to perform such task, but specific process features requires the introduction of ad-hoc solutions: in the production lines tubes significantly vibrate and rotate, and the cylindrical surface of the tube needs to be inspected at 360 degrees. This paper presents the design, the development and the experimental evaluation of a vision system to control the quality of glass tubes, highlighting the specific solutions developed to manage vibrations and rotations, obtaining a 360 degree inspection. The system has been designed and tested in a real facility, and proved effective in identifying defects and impurities in the order of tens of microns

Comparison of Tagging Technologies for Safeguards of Copper Canisters for Nuclear Spent Fuel

Several countries are planning to store nuclear spent fuel in long term geological repositories, preserved by copper canisters with an iron insert. This new approach involves many challenging problems and one is to satisfy safeguards requirements: the Continuity of Knowledge (CoK) of the fuel must be kept from the encapsulation plant up to the final repository. To date, no measurement system has been suggested for a unique identification and authentication. Following the list of the most important safeguards, safety and security requirements for copper canisters identification and authentication, a review of conventional tagging technologies and measurement systems for nuclear items is reported in this paper. The aim of this study is to verify to what extent each technology could be potentially used for keeping the CoK of copper canisters. Several tagging methods are briefly described and compared, discussing advantages and disadvantages

Uncertainty and error in laser triangulation measurements for pipe profiling

Underground pipeline infrastructure often receives insufficient attention and maintenance. Those responsible for ensuring the continuing functionality of this infrastructure primarily use subjective information in their decision making, and standards defining the level of damage acceptable before repair or replacement are difficult to implement. Laser pipe profiling is a relatively new technology that has emerged to take a step toward the objective assessment of buried assets. A laser profiler is a device that traverses a section of pipe, taking measurements of radius around the circumference of the inner pipe wall at multiple locations along the length of the pipe. The accuracy of the measurements obtained by a profiler is a critical piece of knowledge for the evaluation of its usefulness. Analytical measurement and uncertainty models were developed for three laser profiling configurations. These configurations involved a digital camera and a laser whose relative position and orientation were fixed relative to one another. The three configurations included (1) a conically projected laser aligned with the pipe axis, (2) a planar laser placed perpendicular to the pipe axis, and (3) a side-facing laser that projected a line onto the pipe wall parallel to the axis of the pipe. The models utilized normalized system parameters to compute pipe geometry from digital images that reveal the intersection of the laser light and the pipe wall; error propagation techniques were applied to compute the variation in measurement uncertainty as a function of position in the measurement space. Analytical evaluation of the conical projection configuration revealed infinite measurement error for a region of the measurement space; the unbounded error was eliminated by utilizing two conical lasers. The accuracy and uncertainty of the perpendicular plane and side facing configurations were much better than for the conical configuration. Physical models of these two configurations were constructed, and measurements were collected for a pipe section to validate the measurement and uncertainty predictions of the analytical models. The difference between observed worst-case laser measurement error and predicted uncertainty was on the order of 0.1% of nominal pipe radius. This work provides pipe profiler designers the analytical detail required to understand the relationship between system geometry, camera parameters and measurement accuracy. The work provides asset managers with a reference against which to evaluate laser profiling for their infrastructure condition monitoring needs

Technical Design Report for PANDA Electromagnetic Calorimeter (EMC)

This document presents the technical layout and the envisaged performance of the Electromagnetic Calorimeter (EMC) for the PANDA target spectrometer. The EMC has been designed to meet the physics goals of the PANDA experiment. The performance figures are based on extensive prototype tests and radiation hardness studies. The document shows that the EMC is ready for construction up to the front-end electronics interface

Quality assessment of CIPP lining in sewers:Crucial knowledge acquired by IKT and research gaps identified in Germany

Deterioration of buried water and sewer pipes is a significant concern among utilities around the world. Cured-In-Place-Pipe (CIPP) is one of the techniques commonly adopted to rehabilitate pipes. The main purpose of this paper is to provide a brief, but comprehensive, summary of information needed by researchers, engineers and municipalities to recognize the barriers and difficulties that may arise during CIPP sewer rehabilitation work. Thus, this paper outlines the issues and challenges associated with CIPP rehabilitation of main and lateral sewers by analyzing a series of projects conducted by IKT-Institute for Underground Infrastructure in Germany over the last two decades. Finally, ideas for further research are then proposed to reduce the obstacles and risks linked with this technique

Automated microscopic analysis of optical fibre transmission surfaces

Outlined in this thesis is the design of a prototype device for the inspection of optical fibre endfaces. The device designed uses lenses with different magnification’s to acquire scaled microscopic images of the endfaces for analysis purposes. The design specifications for the device are established based on the optical transmission requirements of the fibres and the impact of defects on transmission losses in various regions of the optical fibre endface. The specifications of this device are as follows: • Optical System o 3 lens automated changeover • Imaging System: o Minimum Resolvable Object Size of 2.43j.im o Maximum Field of View of 0.9mm o Resolution of 740 X 560 pixels • Autofocus System with Focus Resolution of 1.25pm • Coaxial Illumination System • 12Mbits/sec USB video acquisition hardware The device designed realises all the mechanical, optical and electronic functionality required to automate the inspection process of optical fibres. The hardware and software challenges involved in designing and building the prototype are discussed in detail in the thesis. A complete evaluation of the design is also carried out, difficulties and problems that occurred with the project are analysed, and recommendations for the improvement of the design are made